When Your Horse says “No” it might mean “Can’t”

On his blog Tom Widdecombe brought up the point about how important it is to get the little things right. It is important because it is those little things that add up down the road to mean a nice ride or a less than nice (or worse!) ride. In his article, which you can read here, he specifically mentions a problem his horse was having turning his head to the right without tipping. He’d spent quite a bit of time perfecting his request so that it was light yet clear. Still his horse tipped instead of turned. Was it that his horse really didn’t understand? Was he just being stubborn? Not at all. Tom had his chiropractor come and take a look. Turns out his horse was blocked at the C1 joint and COULDN’T turn his head.

If you aren’t certain about what I mean by tipping vs. turning then definitely check out Tom’s article, here, because he’s got some nice photos showing the difference.

Anyway, the moral the story here is if you are pretty certain you know what you want and that your presentation is fitting to the horse and he isn’t offering what you think he should… then you need to consider that he simply can’t comfortably do it. This is just another way of saying what I’ve always said, which is, “If your horse knew what you wanted and believed he could do it, well, he’d be doing it.”

If you aren’t certain if your presentation is fitting and you are having problems, then do get someone who’s judgment you trust to take a look at it. Could be that a small adjustment on your part is all that is needed.